To Noise: An Assay
after Jane Hirshfield
We act as though you were only a nuisance.
An irritating addition to the system of being.
A no thing, never not there. A mosquito
in the ear. A buzz in the air.
We only listen in your departure:
When the power cuts off in the heatwave,
and the condenser ticks to a stop.
So many sounds in the house to unnotice
all at once. The hum of the fridge, the plastic fan
in the computer, the transformer’s static prick
from the yard.
And then an airplane in the distance.
Children playing at the corner park.
Bird calls to bird, neighbor to neighbor,
a car zips by with its window down, one song
in three notes.
But in between each of these, your absence
is the death that was before we were,
the lack of even lack we know will come to be.
Science says a little noise adds speed to a network.
A quiet classroom makes it harder to learn.
A hundred miles up, there is no noise above the atmosphere.
There is no sound in the airless
hell beneath our feet.
You are a blanket within the blanket that keeps us warm.
The shapeless there we press our thoughts against
to give us form.
*
How to Pack a Parachute
First know: you should never pack
a parachute unless you know how
to pack a parachute. Knowing is hard,
but the packing is easy, like anything
else—is as simple as checking the lines
for twists and tangles, flaking the canopy,
shaking loose the folds that shouldn’t
be folds, and then folding: s-fold, s-fold,
tuck, tuck, cinch. Try this: Empty a room
of all you’ve ever owned. Place yourself
on your back at its center, so that your
arms outstretched stretch to nothing.
Feel the weight of the air. Remember
that you were always landing there.
*
Timothy Green has worked full-time as editor of Rattle magazine since 2004. He’s the author of American Fractal (Red Hen Press, 2009) and two haibun crown chapbooks with his wife, Katie Dozier: Hot Pink Moon (Fungible Editions, 2024) and Did You See the Moon Honey (Fungible Editions, 2025). He’s host of the livestreaming Rattlecast and Critique of the Week, and co-host of The Poetry Space_. He lives in Texas with Katie and their family.